CAL is the one brokerage that makes the client experience extraordinary.

We are an independent insurance agency, with deep roots in the San Francisco community. Our clients are our neighbors — no matter where they are — and we take great pride in having one of the highest client-retention rates in the Bay Area. We treat every client with care and patience.

Full transparency is one of our hallmarks: As a CAL client, you will understand your options and, ultimately, your coverage portfolio. You will have confidence that all your commercial, personal and benefits insurance needs are covered and your risk is managed by people — actual people — who put your best interest first every day.

Team

Our team approach lets us serve all your insurance and risk needs in a more holistic manner. Whether you need a fresh take on one policy or an overhaul of your entire portfolio, CAL’s experts access a full spectrum of services and insurance products, including commercial, employee benefits and personal coverage. Our longstanding relationships with carriers translate to bottom-line advantages for our clients. Your team at CAL vets policy language and negotiates on your behalf to ensure you get the best coverage at the best price.

Pam Nader, CIC

Yana Nemirovskaya

Favorite quote: “The most important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is not to try. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Norma Ng-Yep, CPCU

Account Executive, Commercial Insurance

Favorite quote: “Happiness depends upon ourselves.” —Aristotle

Ann Silverfoote

Account Manager, Commercial Insurance

Favorite quote: “In God we trust.”

Linda Smith

Client Services Manger – Private Client Services

Favorite quote: “Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.”

Clara Tong

Bookkeeper

Favorite quote: “Solitude sometimes is best society.” John Milton

History

CAL Insurance celebrated 90 years of business in 2017 — that’s nearly a century of serving San Francisco’s insurance needs. Our roots in the community run deep and long; we are committed to serving our neighbors as partners in their business endeavors with the commitment to service and ethics for which we have become known.

In 1927, Cyril Anthony Lagomarsino founded a real estate/insurance business called CAL Insurance and CAL Realty. The name of the businesses, contrary to popular belief, has nothing to do with the state of California or the University of California: It’s Cyril’s initials. The company was located at 515 Frederick Street in San Francisco, across from Kezar Stadium. To expand the insurance side and ensure continuity, Cyril took in a young Clayton Hauge as a partner in CAL Insurance in 1961. The next year, Paul Zavagno joined CAL Insurance as a partner, and in 1963, CAL Insurance became the corporation that exists today.

CAL Insurance & Associates was unique for its time, in that it put together a group of 19 agencies around the Bay Area. Unfortunately, due to market forces, the agencies began to splinter to a point where Clayton left the organization and established CAL Insurance as a sole proprietorship. In 1975, his son, Scott Hauge, came into the agency with a two-part plan: grow the agency account by account and acquire other agencies.

In 1980, Clayscott Insurance Agency, Inc., was established. In 1982, Clayton retired, and Scott purchased CAL Insurance & Associates Inc. from Paul Zavagno, bringing the agency back into the Hauge family. As CAL president, Scott became a leader in the small business community in San Francisco, Sacramento and Washington, DC.

In 2016, Joe DeLucchi, who started his career with CAL in 1998, purchased CAL Insurance. As the company’s fourth president since 1927, Joe understands and appreciates the legacy and history. He brings many years of industry experience and valuable connections within the Bay Area business and nonprofit communities.

The agency is located at the corner of 33rd Avenue and Taraval Street in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset District. Like our company, our building has deep roots in the community; the photo above shows its beginning as Ring’s Market in 1951. Joe and his team of professionals look forward to serving their community for the next century and beyond.

Community

We believe in being great corporate citizens not only locally, but on a state and national level, too. CAL is the insurance advisor/partner to many nonprofits through the greater Bay Area. In addition to providing our risk management expertise, we believe in supporting our nonprofit clients with our time, talents and treasures.

No better example has been set than that of CAL Vice President Scott Hauge’s nonprofit leadership. Throughout the decades, Scott has been a champion of small business. Most notably, he was the founder of Small Business California and the co-founder of Clinic by the Bay. Small Business California is a proactive, nonpartisan business advocate whose only agenda is the well-being of California’s 3.2 million small businesses. Clinic by the Bay is San Francisco’s Volunteers in Medicine clinic — the 82nd VIM clinic in the country and the first in Northern California. Clinic by the Bay is a volunteer-powered free health clinic for the working uninsured.

Many of our past and present employees have served or currently are serving on nonprofit boards, organized volunteer days with our local partners, been involved with programs such as Leadership San Francisco, and are active in philanthropic organizations such as Rotary and The Guardsmen.

In 2005, CAL created the annual “Give Something Back Award,” named for our client, Give Something Back, in appreciation of their business model of donating their profits back to the community. Each year, CAL awards a for-profit client that supports our community. CAL makes a donation in the winner’s honor to a nonprofit organization of their choice. Past client recipients are:

Core Values

Your protection, well-being and satisfaction are CAL’s priority. We strive every day to earn your trust and ongoing business by adhering to our purpose statement of being “the one brokerage that makes the client experience extraordinary.” A purpose statement can be just words on a poster or it can be a guiding principle. We choose the latter and live our core values in everything we do.

We are team players and are committed to helping others out, even when it is “not your job.”

We respect each other. In adverse or difficult situations, we remain cool and level-headed, always.

We deliver quick, accurate and extraordinary service to our clients.

We are forward-thinking and anticipate client needs. We are professional partners with our clients, not a vendor.

We do not take short cuts, and we strive for excellence each day. Mediocrity is easy; excellence is hard work.